Skip to main content

Jess- Konnichiwa from Shibuya

Konnichiwa from Shibuya!

Hi! This is Jess Robinson, the new LEX Intern, reporting from Shibuya, Tokyo! I arrived about a week ago but I feel like I've been here much longer. I'm currently living with the Satohfamily in Nerima ku, which is in the north eastern side of the Tokyo metropolitan area. Since it is primarily a residential area (and far from the center of Tokyo) the houses are a little more spread out and the area is fairly green. On my morning commute, I walk past a couple of fields and enjoy passing by the wide variety of trees, including pomegranate trees. My host parents are very kind people and already we share so many great laughs and interesting conversations.

I started working in the Hippo Family Club Headquarters in Shibuya this week. On Monday I made my first journey from my home to Shibuya which includes changing trains in Ikebukuroand walking through Shibuya train station. Both of these stations are famous for being especially busy. The morning commute,while overwhelming, is incredibly fun for me since I enjoy people watching. The LEX staff are so much fun to work with. They are very kind to me and have made me feel right at home here at the office. I feel so lucky to be able to work with such amazing people.

I'm still in the process of settling in and getting used to my routine but I am having a really great time.

Today I will start my Tokyo Museum tour for my cultural project. I will be visiting the art museums and galleries all around Tokyo to get a better understanding of Japanese Art History and Contemporary Art in an attempt to compare it with Western Art. I bought a museum ticket book for the low low price of 2,000¥(around 20USD) which gives me free entrance or discounted fare on a zillion different museums including science, general history museums and zoos/aquariums. Today I'll start with the most famous art museum, the MoriArt Museum in Roppongi Hills. I'm so excited!!!

That's it for now!

Ja ne!!

-Jess Robinson
aka: Kinoko-chan :)

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Stephanie-こんにちは!Konnichiwa! Hello!

こんにちは!Konnichiwa! Hello! My host sister Asuka and I in 小えど, Japan Hi everyone!  My name is Stephanie, but in Japan I've already been given the nickname  Su-chan  す-ちゃん    (su from Stephanie since the Japanese pronunciation is su-teh-fah-nee, and -chan is added to the end of a name when you are speaking to a younger person or a friend), so you can call me Su-chan! I am one of the five Hippo interns working in the LEX headquarters office in Tokyo this year. In addition to me, from Wisconsin, the intern team is made up of Tino from Mexico, Sakun and Ken Ken from China, and Hiu-chan from Korea. It's great to have such an international group!    Before coming to Japan I attended the University of Wisconsin and graduated with a degree in fine art. During that time I also worked for Wisconsin 4-H International Programs, which is how I first learned about Hippo through the 4-H/Hippo summer and yearlong exchanges. Last summer I had the opportun...

Daniel- Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas 「メリークリスマス」 (Daniel) A knock came at the door around eight in the evening, just as we were finishing eating dinner.  I yelled out, " IRANAI~~~ ", meaning "we don't need it", pretending that it was some late working door-to-door salesman. My host mom laughed and went to answer the door. She came back carrying a huge USPS box from America. Oops. Just kidding. I need that. I really need that. My parents in the US decided to surprise me for Christmas by mailing me a box of my favorite items from America. They somehow managed to pack a pair of pants, two jars almond butter, five boxes of gum, four giant chucks of  halva , and four packages of chocolate. I have no idea how my parents managed to shove all of that stuff into such a small box. But knowing my parents, there is always a way. Needless to say, I was ecstatic to receive my gift. Although my parents told me about the package beforehand, its physical presence was so overwhelming. I fe...

Stephanie- Happy Holidays

Happy Holidays! Hi Everyone, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from Japan! Christmas isn't as big of a holiday in Japan as it is in the U.S., but I did have a nice Christmas dinner (Japanese style) with my host family on Christmas eve and we had several Christmas themed Hippo activities and a potluck party with some of the neighbors. I made eggnog for the occasion (my first attempt but it turned out pretty well!). My host mom even borrowed and put up a little LED light-up Christmas tree. My host family also bought me a little box set of Japanese hiragana stamps as a Christmas gift which was really sweet of them, and it is helping me to learn hiragana characters. :) While Christmas isn't as celebrated as it is in the U.S., New Year's is a very important holiday here. Today is the last day of work at the office before the new year vacation so, as is the Japanese tradition, this morning everyone helped clean the entire office. This type of cleaning  even has a name - ...